'''''The Animatrix''''' is a 2003 DirectToVideo {{anthology}} of nine animated shorts set in [[TheVerse the continuity]] of ''Franchise/TheMatrix Trilogy''. The shorts notably feature individual art styles and themes, and are completely independent of one another beyond the universe.

''Final Flight of the Osiris'' acts as a bridge between the [[Film/TheMatrix first]] and [[Film/TheMatrixReloaded second]] movie, and the others expand backstory and/or the universe.

----!!In order, the shorts are as follows:

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[[folder:General]]* ArtShift: Each short has a unique art style from rotoscoping, anime and complete CGI.* ExpandedUniverse: More characters and stories that show never-before seen aspects of the ''Matrix'' universe.[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Final Flight of the Osiris'']]->(Written by the Wachowskis, directed by Andy Jones, animation by Square Pictures)

This short (the only CGI short of the collection) directly precedes the events of ''The Matrix Reloaded''. The crew of the human ship ''Osiris'' stumbles upon the machines as they begin burrowing to Zion. After the machines discover the ''Osiris'', the crew tries to outrun the machines while hacking into the Matrix to deliver the news of their discovery to the Zion rebels. The story also ties in with the videogame ''VideoGame/EnterTheMatrix'', since one of the first missions has the player trying to retrieve the letter left by the ''Osiris'' crew.

* ArcWelding: ''The Final Flight of the Osiris'' melds into ''Enter The Matrix'', which melds into ''Reloaded''.* BittersweetEnding: [[ForegoneConclusion The Osiris and it's crew don't make it]], but they die by massively influencing the series ending.* ClothingDamage: While sparring, Thaddeus and Jue do this to each other until they are in their underwear. It turns out that they are lovers.* {{Fanservice}}: The dojo scene, where Thaddeus and Joanne slice their clothes off one another.* ForegoneConclusion: The opening to ''The Matrix Reloaded'' takes off where this short ends.* LastStand: Even when the ships goes down and is swarming with Sentinels, Thaddeus takes up an EMP Gun and blasts as many as he can to give Jue more time to deliver the letter.* MaleGaze[=/=]FemaleGaze: When Thaddeus slices Jue's skirt off, the camera pans over her crotch and rear as it falls in slow motion. When she slices his pants off, they unceremoniously fall to the floor and the camera's focused on his feet.* MomentKiller: Thaddeus and Jue's foreplay is interrupted by an alert siren.* SexIsViolence: The first scene --a swordfight that, by its end, is about to turn into an entire different kind of swordplay.[[/folder]]

[[folder:''The Second Renaissance'']]->(Written by the Wachowskis, directed by Mahiro Maeda, animation by Creator/Studio4C)

A two-part story focusing on the Genesis of The Matrix. After the creation of AI, the machines eventually formed their own society and ''tried'' to co-exist with humans -- but were shunned for reasons of economics and prejudice. War eventually broke out and well, if you've seen the movie, you know the outcome.* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: In ''The Second Renaissance'', the machines are unaffected by nuclear weapons because apparently, they don't generate enough heat to damage machinery. Or the Electromagnetic Pulse that is humanity's first line of defense against the machines in the movies. * BigApplesauce: You know the world is well and truly fucked when a machine takes the floor of the United Nations, gloats over their victory, and then nukes Manhattan.* TheDogBitesBack[=/=]TheDogShotFirst: Pretty much the basis of the story. While it's left somewhat vague in the movies, this confirms that [[ForWantOfANail it all could've been avoided]] if humans treated the machines better.* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Part I reflects a lot of ''real'' acts of human rights violations, from the Tiananmen Square to the Holocaust mass burials. One particularly poignant and unsettling scene, showcasing a gang of men beating a robot girl to death and shouting that "she's not real", also reflects generic [[HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster transmisogynistic violence]] - something almost certainly intentional, given Lana Wachowski's involvement in this.* DownerEnding: [[ForegoneConclusion The humans are jerks to the machines, and lose the war.]]* {{Fandisservice}}: There are several instances of frontal nudity, and none are under pleasant circumstances. That includes a SexBot who thinks she's a real person, getting beaten to "death" by a gang of people with sledgehammers.* FantasticRacism: Part I reveals the catalyst of the entire Man-Machine war with hardworking, intelligent androids being abused and mistreated by their corrupt human masters. It gets to point where one of them actually kills his human master not wanting to be demolished, causing an outcry and mass panic triggering a worldwide eradication of machines. Several instances depicted [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything reference]] and [[AnAesop even mimic various real-life social revolutions]] such as the Slave Trade, the Civil Rights Movement, The Tiananmen Square Massacre and The Vietnam War.* ForegoneConclusion * ForWantOfANail: All this wouldn't have happened if not for B1-66ER death sentence.* GodivaHair: The Instructor.* GodzillaThreshold: Operation Dark Storm in ''Part II''. Blocking the sun (without any apparent means of undoing it) means the death of vegetation and phytoplankton, which destroys the foundation for most of Earth's biosphere. Humanity was willing (without any objections and second opinions) to risk a ''[[ApocalypseHow Class 4 apocalypse]]'' just to defeat the machines.* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Spelled out in Part I:-->''"In the beginning, there was man. And for a time, it was good. But humanity's so called civil societies soon fell victim to vanity and corruption. Then man made the machine in his own likeness. Thus did man become the achitect of his own demise. But for a time, it was good."''* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: A symbolic representation of a macabre horse and rider is shown throughout the sequences of the last battle of the first war. What makes it dramatic is that both horse and rider are mechanical, a harbinger of change to come.* ItWillNeverCatchOn: The Machine City, in trying to be a good trade nation with man, develops a hover car for humanity as shown in old television ads. Hundreds of years later, this technology is adapted for use by the hovercraft used by the last of humanity in Zion. In comparison with the Machine's Sentinels, however, the Machines have greatly improved on their old flight technology.* HowDoYouLikeThemApples: {{Invoked|Trope}} by the Machines in both parts of the Second Renaissance (right down to the negotiating robot holding an apple during the U.N. discussions).* HumansAreBastards: ''The Second Renaissance'' shows humans behaving this way a lot.** The storyteller is an AI called "The Instructor", who is reading files from the Zion Mainframe and implied to be some kind of historian/teacher. It takes a middle path, saying that both the humans and the machines made terrible mistakes to create the situation.--> '''The Instructor''': May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins. * IronicEcho: This entire storyline is based on this: pretty much every cruelty done by humans to the machines in Part I is paralleled by a similar (and often worse) cruelty by machines towards humans in Part II.* IwoJimaPose: There's a scene where the UN soldiers pull a reverse of this. The catch is that by that point, they were losing ''badly'' to the Machines.* KickTheSonOfABitch: After all the harm the humans caused the machines, it is not particularly to cheer for them when they [[PayEvilUntoEvil brutally slaughter and experiment]] on the humans in return.* PerspectiveFlip* RuleOfSymbolism: The Instructor depicts the Second Renaissance as the Machine version of Genesis, explaining the constant use of the phrase "for a time, it was good." Visuals depict the Machines holding an apple, in both endings of parts I and II: the first was a Machine Man and Woman in underwear (which they don't know is obscene in the UN, innocently holding an apple and pleading for cooperation; a sign of the innocence when the newborn Adam and Eve did not know how to cover themselves up. The second was where the Machine Ambassador signed the Instrument of Surrender, and it held an apple before it self-destructed; an acceptance of the Machine's own fall into Sin.-->"And Man made the Machine, in his own Image and Likeness..."* TooDumbToLive: Humanity, to a certain extent in Part II. They apparently have forgotten that all the things humans need to survive ''also'' require the sun. And by blocking the sun, it means the death of vegetation and phytoplankton, which destroys the foundation for most of Earth's biosphere. Even if they had an alternative, they basically ensured their own near-extinction unless they assumed they would win inside of a week. See GodzillaThreshold.* UnitedNationsIsASuperPower: The [=UN=] is militarized, and akin to a world government.* UnreliableNarrator: To a point. There are scenes that make one wonder whether they even happened, let alone whether Instructor is as trustworthy and unbiased as she purports to be. Though it could be justified in that the Zion Mainframe might be simply filling in the blanks based on the files. * WarIsHell: The Machine War escalates to the point that the UN scorched the sky. The Human infantry were obviously scared shitless forcing them to resort to Stimpacks. The Machines, without the Sun, respond with ''Human Experimentation''.* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Most of Part I of ''The Second Renaissance'' is driven by the humans' refusal to accept AI as fellow sentient beings. Intentional parallels between RealLife application of such double standards to fellow humans are abound, from a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford court verdict]] ruling that black people couldn't be US citizens to a group of men beating up a young woman who turns out to be a RobotGirl.[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Kid's Story'']]->(Written by the Wachowskis, directed by ShinichiroWatanabe, animation by Creator/Studio4C)

A short set between the first movie and ''Reloaded''. Focusing on a young kid who, like Neo before him, senses something off about his world. Making contact with Neo, he soon finds himself forced to run for his life when his unnatural intuition attracts Agents. In case you're wondering, yes, this is the ''same'' character seen in the last two films. Aside from pestering Neo and crew during ''Reloaded'', he later destroys the door mechanisms that allow ''The Hammer'' hovercraft inside Zion during the invasion in ''Revolutions''.

* BeyondTheImpossible: [[spoiler:The Kid woke ''himself'' up from the Matrix, an act ''nobody'' considered possible.]]* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The kid escapes. Unfortunately, he's now stuck in the real world.]]* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:The Kid breaks free of the Matrix this way. Inside the Matrix, the people were led to believe he killed himself due to being disillusioned with reality.]]* YouAreNotAlone: In ''Kid's Story'', The Kid feels like only he thinks reality feels ''less'' real than his dreams, which leads him to ask people on the Internet if anyone else feels the same way. [[spoiler:In the end, the trope is invoked when someone (either Neo or another rebel) writes back: "You are not alone."]][[/folder]]

[[folder:''Program'']]->(Written and directed by Creator/YoshiakiKawajiri, animation by Creator/{{Madhouse}} Studios)

Set in the training session of a woman named Cis, set in a Feudal Era Japan [[TitleDrop program]], she enters a sparring match with partner Duo, only to find he is contemplating negotiating a return to the Matrix.

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:When Cis defends herself and kills Duo, she finds out that she faced off against a virtual program designed to test her reaction to the situation. Even though she volunteered for the test in the first place, she still gets pissed when she finds out the truth.]]* BareHandedBladeBlock: Cis blocks Duo's attack during sparring by grabbing his katana between her palms.* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Cis reveals her loyalty by killing the man she loves. Thankfully, it's undone as it's just a training program, but it doesn't undo the damage done to Cis.]]* {{Expy}}: Duo serves as one to Cypher ''and'' Morpheus. * FaceHeelTurn: Duo contemplates this. [[spoiler:He does, but is killed by Cis.]]* {{Fanservice}}: Cis appears in a tank top and panties.%%* ImplausibleFencingPowers%%* SecretTestOfCharacter* UnwinnableTrainingSimulation: [[spoiler: The point of the whole exercise. In the simulation, Duo traps Cis in the program, killed the crew in the real world and alerted the machines to their location. Cis can either join him, be killed by him, or be killed when the machines destroy the ship. It's a lose-lose situation either way.]][[/folder]]

This short explores the story of track runner Dan Davis, who has become obsessed with setting a world record. The story switches between the days before his race and the race itself -- where Dan runs so fast, he begins to break the rules of The Matrix...

* BeyondTheImpossible: In ''World Record'', Dan manages to run fast enough to cause glitches in the Matrix as it struggles to keep up with him. Even when the Matrix ''freezes the program'', it doesn't stop him for long. He even outruns ''Agents''! ** [[spoiler:After the Machines manage to reconnect him and make sure he can never walk again, he briefly manages to glitch gravity and begin ''floating''.]]* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Davis escapes the matrix, but is physically (and presumably mentally) handicapped in order to incapacitate him and keep him under control.]]** [[spoiler: Of course somewhere in his mind he still ''remembers'' what happened. So this bit of entrapment might not last for very long.]]* HeroicRROD: Dan's body collapses and he practically ragdolls several yards down the track after crossing the finish line after the race. [[spoiler:He did manage to set the record, though, at 8.96 seconds for the 100 yard dash]].* TitleDrop* WorthyOpponent: An Agent actually gives Dan props for [[spoiler:successfully outrunning him.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:''Beyond'']]->(Written and directed by Koji Morimoto, animation by Creator/Studio4C)

Within the Matrix, Japanese teenager Yoko searches for her lost cat, and during her search, she discovers a "haunted house" where physics don't seem to apply -- but her discovery does not go unnoticed by the Matrix.

* HauntedHouse: Yoko and several children in ''Beyond'' discover a "haunted house". [[spoiler:A glitch in the Matrix causes all of the weird phenomena in the house. They spend so much time playing there-one of the glitches was a room where gravity didn't work properly-that the Agents finally catch on and fix the place.]]* NoEnding: [[spoiler:The agents and cleanup team repair the building. Yoko and the kids return to normal life. However the final shot sees a bottle slowly roll on it's own to where the old building used to be. Meaning the "glitch" might not be completely gone.]][[/folder]]

{{Cyberpunk}} meets FilmNoir in a tale about modern-day PrivateDetective Ash, whose newest job -- to find the elusive Trinity -- gets more dangerous as he tries his best to get a lead on her. Carrie-Anne Moss delivers the voice of Trinity in her animated form.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Ash solves the case and even helps Trinity, but she is forced to fatally wound him to stop the agents controlling him. Leaving him behind, Trinity apologizes but remarks that Ash could probably have handled the truth had they made it.]]* DieselPunk: In keeping with the theme of Film Noir blending with cyberpunk, there are multiple instances of this throughout the short, such as a typewriter-like desktop with a holographic display.* EyeScream: [[spoiler:The Agents planted a bug in Ash's eye. Trinity removes it without destroying his eye.]]* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Ash stays behind and faces the agents despite his wound.]] %%* OneLastSmoke* SexyBacklessOutfit: Trinity * WorthyOpponent: [[spoiler:Despite having a gun pointed at them, an Agent stops another from finishing Ash, presumably because he managed to reach Trinity intact.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:''Matriculated'']]->(Written and directed by [[WesternAnimation/AeonFlux Peter Chung]], animation by DNA)

This short follows a group of above-ground human rebels as they attempt to brainwash a captured machine so it will fight for humanity.

* DerangedAnimation: The scenes within the "brainwashing" program are bizarrely inventive.* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The re-programmed machine destroys the machines that attack the base. But all the rebels die before then, and when he tries to plug the consciousness of one of the last remaining rebels into virtual reality, she rejects him and chooses to die instead, leaving the machine all by itself.]]* GoodColorsEvilColors: The captured machine's eyes turn from red to green after he is converted.* HeelFaceBrainwashing: One of the machines goes through this.* IronicEcho: Despite the [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] pointlessness, the machines are given ''the illusion'' of a choice between joining the humans or being destroyed, directly paralleling the blue/red pill choice the free humans are given.[[/folder]]